Deepest point on Earth humans have ever stood is right here in Ontario

The deepest point on Earth that humans have ever set foot is within the depths of a mine located in rural northeastern Ontario.

Kidd Mine, a base metals mining operation near Timmins, Ont., stretches a mind-bending 2,733 metres (8,967 feet) below sea level. 

That's almost three kilometres underground, or roughly five times as deep as the CN Tower is tall. If that measurement doesn't hammer home how deep the Kidd Mine stretches, picture the distance between the CN Tower and the Royal Ontario Museum — but straight down.

Owned and operated by Swiss multinational Glencore, the mine marks the deepest accessible non-marine point on Earth, or the deepest solid ground where a human has ever set foot. 

While Kidd Mine holds the world record of the deepest mine below sea level, it is actually not the deepest mine below ground level, nor the deepest point on the planet humans have ventured.

The deepest mine in terms of absolute depth below the surface is the Mponeng Gold Mine, Gauteng Province, South Africa, which delves four kilometres below ground, but begins at about 1,600 metres above sea level — making Ontario's Kidd Mine deeper by about 300 metres.

Even some caves come close. Krubera Cave in Abkhazia, Georgia, stretches 2,224 metres (7,297 feet) below ground — the deepest in the world, but still about a half-kilometre shy of Ontario's subterranean claim to fame.

As for the deepest humans have ever ventured, that record goes to Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, which sits a staggering 10,935 meters (35,876 feet) below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

Kidd Mine also holds another fascinating record, being home to the world's oldest pool of flowing water at over 2 billion years old.